Hunt for heirs after Hackney 'mole man' William Lyttle dies

William Lyttle outside his house in Hackney, east London in 2006. Photograph: Sarah Lee

A pensioner known as "the Hackney mole man", because he spent 40 years digging a network of tunnels under his house, has died this month, prompting a search for a possible estranged wife and daughter.

William Lyttle, 79, became notorious four years ago when Hackney council in east London evicted him from his £1m Victorian home after discovering he had shovelled out 100 cubic metres of earth from beneath it and several neighbouring houses. Using ultrasound scanners the council said he had hollowed out a web of tunnels and caverns, some 8m (26ft) deep, spreading up to 20m all round his house.

Lyttle, from Ireland, was ordered to pay £293,000 by the high court two years ago after the council sought to recuperate the costs of scaffolding and new foundations. More than 30 tonnes of debris and waste, including three cars and a boat, were removed by contractors.

The council has since spent £70,000 maintaining the building while providing Lyttle with temporary accommodation costing £45,000. Months before he died he was moved to a flat near to his old home in the De Beauvoir estate.

Police have been unable to trace Lyttle's next of kin, possibly including a daughter who could be in line to inherit £700,000 from the sale of the house. Lyttle, an eccentric who endeared himself to his neighbours in spite of his digging, never revealed the motivation behind what he called his "home improvements".

"I first tried to dig a wine cellar, and then the cellar doubled, and so on. But the idea that I dug tunnels under other people's houses is rubbish," he told the Guardian in 2006. "I just have a big basement.

"Pressed on why he had been digging so much, Lyttle replied: "Inventing things that don't work is a brilliant thing, you know. People ask what the big secret is. And you know what? There isn't one."

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